Destiny Flavored
by Verboten Byacolate
Summary: 20 dreams. Here and now they fight. Then and there they dream. The two collide with a faint humming sound, and maybe the click of an unlocked door. "Here's the key." SoraxKairi
1. Sora

_A/N_; Making good on my claim for the 20 Dreams LJ community. I'd like to thank them for the opportunity (you rock, **sparkism**!!) to break out of my manga-only shell. Now it's video games!!  
_Disclaimer_; Kingdom Hearts belongs to its creators. (But probably mostly Utada Hikaru. Because it's unlikely that there's something that she doesn't own.)  
_Dedication_; For my younger brother (the older one) who has wanted a fic for his favored fandoms for... like... ever.

**20 Dreams  
**_1- 5  
Sora_

**#1 - Paopu**

In my dreams, she smiles and takes the star -beautiful star, kind star- from my hands and eyes it. Doubt wells in my throat, and it's tough to swallow. Only in my dreams do I have enough courage to ask the sea to feast with me. Her eyes are a stunning shade of blue, and when she looks up once more, the very ocean is paled by their intensity. I'm sure she can see my red cheeks, for even in my inner mind, I'm reduced to a hesitant, blushing idiot in front of this girl.

She looks at me and raises the fruit to her lips.

"It's good, Sora. Try some!"

- I do not deny her.

**#2 - Teenager**

Savior of the world and those beyond it. Master of the Keyblade. Heartless-fighting warrior.

Somehow, even an overall hero was still prone to adolescence.

The times in between his rescuer-master-warrior-hero tirades, when he was safe on Destiny Island with family and friends, secure in his own bed without the adrenaline spurred by current adventures flooding and surging through his mind, a somewhat... different path was walked by his subconscience. A path often travelled by boys his age, involving close female companions with smiling eyes and smoothe skin and soft, soft brown hair that shimmered crimson in the burning sunset... Dreams that would jolt him upright in bed, heart pounding as though it was incapable of regaining a normal pulse, images still imprinted inside dark eyelids. Images that he was ashamed of. Images that he revisited from time to time like the young man he was. Images that, for the longest time, didn't allow him to look Kairi in the eyes for nearly three months.

He had prevailed against Ansem and thousands of heartless, and yet, he couldn't win a battle against mere hormones in his sleep?

_A pale pink dress, thin and soft, underneath his own nimble fingers, which only held the ability not to fumble in deep dreams, slid slowly under his grip. She breathed his name with the whisper of cotton, a beautiful song unto his ears, as thin, lean arms slid around his neck, dragging him down--_

No. No he couldn't.

**#3 - Destination Anywhere**

Destiny Island was their safe haven. It was their home, and the place where they had grown up; together, three as one, two as one. It was the place in which they had seperated from, and come back to time and time again.

It was the place of dreams and promises.

_"Okay, you win. Take this. It's my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me!"_

_"Don't worry, I will."_

_"Promise?"_

_"Promise." _

_"Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."_

Vows that had yet to be unfulfilled. There was trust, and from that there was a loud affection.

Destiny Island. Home-- haven. The place of childhood promises. The very tree that blossomed an everlasting love in his heart.

**#4 - Heart**

In my heart there is a dream, and in the dream you sleep. You are by my side on the sands of some shore with only stars to blanket us. Your lashes flutter as you search for something in your sleep, and your hand (soft and warm and good) finds mine above tiny pebbles.

In my heart there is a key, one that I have found is meant for your hands alone. I want no one else to be this close to me. I wish for you alone to unlock my feelings-- I want them to surround you, so I can love you as well.

In my heart there is a place meant for you to sleep and dream and just _be_. You have promised to stay. So, until I set you free... please stay with me. In my heart. A place meant for only you.

**#5 - Cave Question**

The image stayed fresh in his mind as he raced into the cave, tripping over his own feet once in his haste to reach the primitive canvas. He knew what he needed to say, the thing that could not be uttered aloud, a question that only Kairi could understand.

Pictures inscribed in days long ago were ignored as he reached a new space, a clean slate for the picture in his mind. A chalky rock was clenched in his fist and met the cavern wall, scrawling the image widely, pure white against aged gray.

Someday she would see it. Someday, she would walk in from the sun to look upon nostalgic images and find this new one. Someday she would find the thickly drawn image of sky and sea, one heart in between, three confounded, uneven question marks scribbled underneath the scape. Someday she would answer him.

Sora was simply glad to voice his dreams at last.

- _tbc_ -

**Please review! This is my first Kingdom Hearts fic, and I would like feedback on how I was able to portray these amazing characters. Your feedback is my improvement, which is to your enjoyment. You're doing yourself a favor as well as making me uber-happy! 8D  
-Bya**

Kairi Preview:

**#6 - Darkness  
"I swear, with all of my power, I will shield you from the darkness."  
But you know. You know that the darkness has already had me.**


	2. Kairi

**20 Dreams  
**_6- 10  
Kairi_

**#6 - Darkness**

Sometimes within my dreams, I can hear your voice. I know you are calling out to me, but I can never make out your words. You call out unanswerable things, and it wasn't until after an eternity that I could understand. It wasn't until we were home that I could hear your words-- kind as the were. Useless as they were.

"I swear, with all of my power, I will shield you from the darkness."

But you know. You know that the darkness has already had me.

**#7 - Fear**

When she was small, Kairi was afraid of the dark. Her room was opressive, and she could not sleep with her lamp on. Many times she would sneak out through her window and creep under the protective moonlight to the beach. Compaired to the day, it was so different at night. Everything that had been tinged in red and yellow was now painted over in silver and black. the sand didn't burn her feet, so she often tread barefoot. Kairi would find a palm tree-- the same one every time-- and she would sit under it, watching the moon until she fell asleep. She knew that in the morning, her parents would assume she'd woken up early to play with Sora and Riku.

Only once was she ever caught. The previous night, she had run to the beach, galloping away from the imaginary monsters that lurked beyond her closet door, and upon arrival at her tree nearly stumbled into a dozing boy. Further investigation proved to reveal her best friend.

"You can't sleep either, huh?" she murmered, crouching beside the sleeping boy. He always had an air of calm about him, but under the moon, an ocean breeze toussling his hair, he looked downright tranquil. She smiled. "Are you afraid of the dark, too?"

Without making a sound, Kairi leaned against her own spot of the trunk and gazed at Sora. She promptly decided that her best friend had the prettiest eyelashes she'd ever seen.

Upon deciding this, Kairi promptly conked out, her cheek on his shoulder. She would not know that when he woke up, he'd find her face still tilted upward to look upon his lashes in slumber.

Sora had not known Kairi was afraid of the dark. He would never have imagined that she would be out here. But he supposed that it was probably a twist of fate that he'd decided to go stargazing that night.

("So, the monsters weren't after you?"

"Monsters?"

"Never mind. It's nothing. Bring me with you next time.")

**#8 - Occasion**

Kairi dreams that she has places to go, things to do, people to see when she does not. In her fantasties, a tall, handsome man waltzes up to her in a room full of well-dressed people and asks her to dance. She always says yes. It feels right, because she is as well dressed as those around her.

She always says yes. Except when she says no.

She doesn't say no. Not unless she isn't dressed up. She never says no, except when her dreams are cruel to her and dress her in nothing more than everyday clothing. She never says no because the tall handsome man doesn't ask her. Not when she is dressed so tastelessly.

So she sits in a chair on the wall and watches the tall handsome man dance with girls with long hair, fair skin, and dazzling dresses. They move in time with the music-- perhaps Chopin, because it's almost sad enough to make her cry.

The song ends, and the tall handsome man walks by, not sparing her a glance. She looks after him momentarily before heaving a sigh.

And then-- always then-- another brushes past the tall handsome man, walking in the opposite direction. He always looks like he has a place to go, a goal in mind. He looks around, and she wonders why.

Then he turns, and blue eyes similar to hers snatch her attention, and he smiles in a way that tells her that he's found what he's looking for.

"Key, Kairi. Want to dance?"

**#9 - It**

"I can't stand it!" She throws up her hands, and the pebbles held within go flying.

"What's up?" Sora asks, not so used to her impatience, but not willing to look at her long enough to rile her more. He crouches down, and pokes at a scuttling crab beneath the ocean's surface.

"I don't know!" she says, kicking at the water. "I keep having this dream. It's the same dream every night, but whenever I wake up, I can't remember the ending!"

"Hmm." Sora rolls the legs of his pants up a little higher. "What's the dream?"

"Well, it's you and me on the beach... but it's not. It's always Namine and Roxas." She ran her hands through her hair and looked up at the clouds. "They sound just like you and me, and they do all the things we do, but at the end, it's you and me again. You hold your hand out to me..." She holds her hand out to show him. "You have something to give me, but then... I forget."

"Is it... a crab?" He picks up the tiny crab and holds it up to her. Kairi giggles. "No."

"Is it... seaweed?" He takes her hand and a piece of green from under the moving water and ties it expertly around her thin wrist.

"No."

He looks around for something else, but finds nothing. "There are only rocks left."

"Don't worry about it," she says flippantly. "I'll figure it out eventu--"

"Wow, cool! Look at this!" Sora snatches something and holds it up. "Look at its shape!"

She takes the heart-shaped stone from him, and the second her fingers run over its smooth surface, she remembers. And she smiles.

"This is it."

**#10 - Cave Answer**

When she stumbles into the cave once more, she has in mind to add a drawing. Her skills have improved, and upon seeing old sketches, she feels embarrassed. She doesn't expect to see the new image.

Sky and sea with a heart nestled plainly between the two. She looks and she knows. She is aware that he is uncertain-- the rushed scribbles that resemble question marks tell her so. She smiles fondly at the image her shy-at-the-wrong-time best friend had sketched.

One day he'll return. Maybe in a month. Maybe in a year. But when he does, Kairi hopes (_knows, without a doubt_) that he will see that his question marks are gone. She hopes he won't be offended that his worries were covered in a large heart of her own.

- _tbc_ -

Together Preview:

**#11 - Gravity  
With all your strength you pull me. The light just brings me closer**


End file.
